also wanted to add that I use this with the Canon 1.4x extender if & when I want a bit more reach. it was either this combo or get a 70-200 zoom, which I probably would have opted for, but since i was making the purchase for a holiday/trip i went with the smaller & lighter option. turns out to be a fantastic 135/190mm setup, and i have no plans to get the telezoom for a while.

the only thing that could make this lens better (imo) would be image stabilization. however, that's really just rhetoric and theory. in practice i'm getting really sharp photos and don't feel like i "need" IS. in fact, i did some test shots of paper currency when doing microadjustments for various lenses (24/1.4L II, 35/1.4L, 85/1.8, 16-35/2.8L II, 24-105/4L IS)... i thought for sure the 135L would be softer than some, but it was clearly the sharpest lens i've got. would i take a version with IS assuming the image quality didn't go down? absolutely!